Billboard charts

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The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine. The two primary charts - the Hot 100 (top 100 singles) and the Top 200 (top 200 albums) factor in airplay, as well as music sales in all relevant formats. Billboard is considered the foremost worldwide authority worldwide in music charts, and the rankings have gained a following among the general public.

On January 4, 1936, Billboard magazine published its first music hit parade. The first Music Popularity Chart was calculated in July, 1940. A variety of song charts followed, which were eventually consolidated into the Hot 100 by mid-1958. The Hot 100 currently combines single sales, radio airplay and digital downloads.

[edit] Methodology of its charts

Currently, Billboard utilizes a system called Nielsen SoundScan to track sales of singles, albums, videos and DVDs. Essentially, it's a system that registers sales when the product is purchased at the cash register of SoundScan-enabled stores. Billboard also uses a system called Broadcast Data Systems, or BDS, which they own as a subsidiary, to track radio airplay. Each song has an "acoustic fingerprint" which, when played on a radio station that is contracted to use BDS, is detected. These detections are added up every week among all radio stations to determine airplay points. Arbitron statistics are also factored in to give "weight" to airplay based on audience size and time-of-day.

Each of Billboard's charts use this basic formula. What separates the charts is what stations or stores each chart uses - each musical genre having a core audience or retail group. Each genre's department at Billboard is headed up by a chart manager, who makes these determinations.

For many years, a song had to be commercially available as a single to be considered for any of Billboard's charts. At the time, instead of using SoundScan or BDS, Billboard obtained its data from manual reports filled out by radio stations and stores. According to the 50th Anniversary issue of Billboard magazine, prior to the official implementation of Nielsen SoundScan tracking in November 1991, many radio stations and retail stores would completely remove songs from their manual reports after the associated record labels stopped promoting a particular single, thus songs would fall quickly after peaking and had shorter chart lives. In 1990, the country singles chart was the first chart to use SoundScan and BDS. They were followed by the Hot 100 and the R&B chart in 1991. Today, all of Billboard's charts use this technology.

Before September 1995, singles were allowed to chart in the week they first went on sale based on airplay points alone. The policy was changed in September 1995 to only allow a single to debut after a full week of sales on combined sales and airplay points. This allowed several tracks to debut at number one.

In December 1998, the policy was further modified to allow tracks to chart on the basis of airplay alone without a commercial release. This change was made to reflect the changing realities of the music business. Previous to this, several substantial radio and MTV hits had not appeared on the Billboard chart at all, because companies chose not to release them as standalone singles, in hopes that their unavailability would spur greater album sales. Not offering a popular song to the public as a single was unheard of before the 1970s. Among the many pre-1999 songs that had ended up in this Hot 100 limbo were Nirvana's "All Apologies", the Cardigans' "Lovefool", Smash Mouth's "Walking on the Sun", OMC's "How Bizarre", Harvey Danger's "Flagpole Sitta", Jamiroquai's "Virtual Insanity", Everclear's "Santa Monica", Stone Temple Pilots' "Interstate Love Song", Fastball's "The Way", the Smashing Pumpkins' "Disarm", Veruca Salt's "Seether", and The Cranberries' "Zombie", as well as numerous Green Day, Live, Offspring, No Doubt, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Mariah Carey, Alanis Morissette and Foo Fighters tracks.

Starting in 2005, Billboard changed its methodology to allow paid digital downloads from digital music stores such as iTunes to chart with or without the help of radio airplay.

[edit] A variety of charts

Originally, Billboard had separate charts for different measures of popularity, including disk jockey playings, juke box playings, and best selling records in stores. There was also a composite standing chart compiled by combining those, which gradually grew to become a top 100, the ancestor of the current Hot 100 chart. The juke box chart ceased publication after the June 17, 1957 issue, the disk jockey chart, after the July 28, 1958 issue, and the best seller chart, after the October 13, 1958 issue. The July 28, 1958 issue was also the last issue in which the composite chart was called the Top 100; the following week was the start of the Hot 100 titles.

Currently, Billboard has many different charts with the Hot 100 and Billboard 200 being the most famous. Billboard also has charts for the following music styles: rock, country, dance, bluegrass, jazz, classical, R&B, rap, electronic, pop, Latin, Christian music, comedy albums, and even for ringtones for cell phones.

[edit] At year's end

At the end of each year, Billboard tallies the results of all of its charts, and the results are published in a year-end issue and heard on year-end editions of its American Top 40 and American Country Countdown radio broadcasts, in addition to being announced in the press. Between 1991 and 2006, the top single/album/artist(s) in each of those charts was/were awarded in the form of the annual Billboard Music Awards, which were annually held in December until the awards went dormant in 2007 (plans for a new version of the awards in 2008 fell through, and no awards have been held since 2007). The year-end charts cover a period from the first week of December of the previous year to the last week of November of the respective year.[1]^{[dead link]}

[edit] Singles and Tracks

[edit] All-genre

Chart Title	Chart type	Number of positions	Description
Hot 100	sales + airplay	100	The United States music industry standard singles popularity chart.
Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles		25	Ranks the top 25 songs below #100 which have not yet appeared on the Hot 100. Can also be seen as a twenty-five position addendum to the Hot 100.
Heatseekers Songs		50	Ranks songs from new artists/bands that have never attained the top 50 of the Hot 100. If a song reaches the top 50, it and any of the artists'/bands' subsequent singles are ineligible for the chart.
Radio Songs	airplay (audience)	75	Measures radio airplay audience impressions on all formats of radio stations. one of the three component charts of the Hot 100.
Hot Singles Sales	physical sales		Measures sales of commercial singles. One of three component charts of the Hot 100. No recurrent chart
Digital Songs	digital sales	75	Ranks the top-selling digital song sales. Combines different versions of songs for a summarized figure. One of the three component charts of the Hot 100. No recurrent chart
Hot Digital Tracks	digital sales	75	Ranks digital song sales with different versions of songs listed. No recurrent chart

[edit] R&B/Hip-Hop

Chart Title	Description
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs	The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs lists the most popular R&B and hip hop songs, calculated by combining airplay from Urban AC and R&B/Hip-Hop stations and record sales from Urban markets.
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay	The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay measures airplay base on audience impressions from various R&B/Hip-Hop Stations, and is the airplay component of Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop	The Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop ranks songs by combining airplay base on radio plays (spins) from various R&B/Hip-Hop Stations.
Hot Adult R&B Airplay	The Hot Adult R&B Airplay measures airplay from Urban AC radio stations.
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Sales	The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Sales is the sales component of Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. It is a separate panel of sales of commercial 12" Maxi singles in the urban market.
Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles	The Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles ranks the top 25 singles gaining poins to debut inside the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. The top 25 posisitions are the twenty-five space below the one-hundred point on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
Hot Rap Tracks	The Hot Rap Tracks ranks the top 25 Hip-Hop/Rap songs by combining airplay on Rhythmic and Urban AC radio stations and Single Sales from Hip-Hop focused markets.
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Recurrents	The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs ranks songs that have fallen below #50 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and have been on that chart for over 20 weeks.
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Recurrent Airplay	The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Recurrent Airplay ranks the songs that have fallen below #25 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay and have been on that chart for over 20 weeks.

[edit] Adult/Pop

Chart Title	Chart type	Number of positions	Description
Pop Songs	airplay (spins)	40	Measures airplay detections (spins) on Contemporary hit radio stations.
Rhythmic Top 40		40	Measures airplay spins on Rhythmic stations. Rhythmic is a music radio format that includes of a mix of dance, upbeat rhythmic pop, hip hop and R&B hits. While most rhythmic stations' playlists comprise that mentioned above, there are some tend to lean very urban with current hip hop, urban pop and R&B hits that gain mainstream appeal.
Adult Pop Songs		40	Measures airplay spins on Hot adult contemporary stations.
Adult Contemporary		30	Measures airplay spins on adult contemporary stations.

[edit] Country

Chart Title	Chart type	Number of positions	Description
Country Songs	airplay (audience)	60	Measures airplay audience impression on Country stations.

[edit] Rock

Chart Title	Chart type	Number of positions	Description
Rock Songs	airplay (audience)		Measures airplay audience impression on Mainstream rock, Alternative, and Triple A stations.
Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks	airplay (spins)		Measures airplay spins on mainstream rock radio stations, a category that includes stations that play primarily rock music but are not modern rock (i.e. alternative).
Alternative Songs		40	Measures airplay spins on alternative stations.
Triple A Tracks		30	Measures airplay spins on Adult album alternative (also known as "Triple A") radio most of which are alternative rock songs that skew towards an older audience.

[edit] Dance

Chart Title	Chart type	Number of positions	Description
Dance/Club Play Songs	reports from DJs	50	Compiled exclusively from playlists submitted by nightclub disc jockeys who must apply and meet certain criteria to become "Billboard-reporting DJs.
Hot Dance Airplay			A monitored dance music radio chart which came about as a result of the small but influential impact of dance music on the radio and the stations that program it.
Hot Dance Singles Sales			A chart which measures the sale of commercially released singles in the dance music market, including remixes. It was formerly known as Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales, when the chart was restricted to sales of the 12" Maxi Single and CD Maxi Single format, but in recent years, singles only released in the CD Single format have apparently been counted too.

[edit] Latin

Billboard Chart Title	Description
Hot Latin Songs	The Hot Latin Songs (a.k.a Hot Latin Tracks) is a weekly music chart for Spanish language singles in the American music market. It was established by the magazine in the 1970s, when music labels and Billboard realized that Spanish-language songs had a great potential to the American audiences. The chart is based on airplay on Latin music stations. Songs on the chart are not necessarily in Spanish language.
Hot Latin Pop Airplay	The Hot Latin Pop Airplay is a weekly monitored Latin pop music radio chart which ranks the most played Latin pop songs on Latin music stations. It was established by the magazine in the 1994. This chart is not released to the public.
Hot Latin Regional Mexican Airplay	The Latin Regional Mexican Airplay is a weekly chart which ranks Regional Mexican music information from different genres like Mariachi, Norteño, Banda and Duranguense. This chart is based on Airplay; the radio charts are compiled using information tracked by from Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems. It was established by the magazine in the 1994. This chart is not released to the public.
Hot Latin Tropical Airplay	The Hot Latin Tropical Airplay (a.k.a. Latin Tropical/Salsa Airplay) is a weekly monitored chart which ranks Tropical music information from different genres like Merengue, Salsa, Bachata, Guaracha and others on Latin music stations. It was established by the magazine in the 1994. This chart is not released to the public.
Hot Latin Rhythm Airplay	The Latin Rhythm Airplay chart comprises singles and tracks from artists who represent the Hispanic rhythmic/Hurban genre including Reggaeton, Hispanic R&B/Hip-Hop, Rhythmic Pop/Dance and crossovers from English-language and/or bilingual acts. This chart came about as a result of radio stations tapping into the growing second and third generation Hispanic audience who wanted a Spanish-speaking or bilingual alternative to the formats that they felt would represent them. It was established by the magazine in the 1994. This chart is not released to the public.

[edit] Christian

Chart Title	Chart type	Number of positions	Description
Christian Songs	airplay (audience)		Measures airplay audience impression on Christian radio stations.
Hot Christian Adult Contemporary	airplay (spins)	30	Measures airplay spins on Christian adult contemporary stations.
Hot Gospel Songs	airplay (spins)	30	Measures airplay spins on Gospel stations.

[edit] Ringtones

Chart Title	Chart type	Number of positions	Description
Hot Ringtones	ringtone sale	40	Ranks weekly sales of polyphonic ringtones for mobile phones.
Hot RingMasters	ringtone sale	40	Ranks the weekly sales of master ringtones for mobile phones.
Hot Videoclips		25	Ranks the top 25 most popular music videos according to digital sales and TV play on channels such as TRL and 106 & Park.

[edit] Jazz

Chart Title	Chart type	Number of positions	Description
Smooth Jazz Songs	airplay (spins)	30	Measures airplay spins on Smooth jazz stations.

[edit] Canadian charts

Chart Title	Chart type	Number of positions	Description
Canadian Hot 100	airplay + sales	100	the Canadian music industry standard singles popularity chart.
Emerging Canadian Artist	airplay + sales	30	Ranks the most popular songs by emerging Canadian artists. Artists are considered emerging until 12 months after the date their first Canadian Hot 100 charting entry reaches the top 40. No recurrent chart
Hot Digital Song	digital sales	75	Ranks the top-selling digital song sales. Combines different versions of songs for a summarized figure. one of the component charts of Canadian Hot 100. No recurrent chart
Hot 100 Airplay	airplay (audience)	75	Measures radio airplay audience impressions on 137 radio stations from five different formats. one of the component charts of Canadia Hot 100.
All-format Airplay	airplay (spins)	50	Measures radio airplay spins on 137 radio stations from five formats. A 100-position chart is available at Jam! Canoe website.
CHR/Top 40 Airplay		50	Measures radio airplay spins on 25 CHR radio stations.
AC Airplay		50	Measures radio airplay spins on 28 AC radio stations.
Hot AC Airplay		50	Measures radio airplay spins on 24 Hot AC radio stations.
Country Airplay		50	Measures radio airplay spins on 31 Country radio stations.
Rock Airplay		50	Measures radio airplay spins on 29 Rock radio stations.

[edit] International charts

Billboard Chart Title	Description
Eurochart Hot 100 Singles	The Eurochart Hot 100 Singles ranks the best selling singles in Europe by combining sales from various countries in Europe.
Greek Top 10 Chart	The Greek Top 1o Chart ranks the best selling digital singles and tracks in Greece.
Japan Hot 100	The Japan Hot 100 ranks the best selling singles and tracks in Japan.
Turkey Top 20 Chart	Turkey Top 20 Chart ranks the best selling and the most listening foreign singles and tracks in Turkey.
Turkish Top 20 Chart	Turkish Top 20 Chart ranks the best selling and the most listening Turkish singles and tracks in Turkey.
Turkish Rock Top 20 Chart	Turkey Top 20 Chart ranks the best selling and the most listening Turkish rock singles and tracks in Turkey.
Global Dance Tracks	Global Dance Tracks is a weekly international survey of the songs that are most popular in dance clubs globally. It is compiled by Billboard exclusively from playlists submitted by nightclub disc jockeys who must apply and meet certain criteria to become "Billboard-reporting DJs.

[edit] Discontinued charts

Chart Title	Discontinued date	Description
Country Single Sales	2005	Ranks the top selling commercial Country singles.
Pop 100	June 13, 2009	Ranked songs by combining airplay focused on pop radio and sales The chart's importance is replaced by the Top 40 Mainstream chart
Pop 100 Airplay	June 13, 2009	Measured pop radio airplay one of the three component charts of the Pop 100.

[edit] Albums

Chart Title	Number of positions	Description
The Billboard 200	200	Industry standard, including albums from any genre. Including both new and catalog albums.
Catalog Albums	50	An album becomes a catalog title when it is more than 18 months old and has fallen below position 100 on the Billboard 200.
Current Albums	200	The same chart as Billboard 200 with catalog titles removed.
Digital Albums
Internet Albums
R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
Rap Albums
Rock Albums
Hard Rock Albums
Alternative Albums
Folk Albums	15
Country Albums	75
Bluegrass Albums
Dance/Electronic Albums	25
Top Latin Albums
Latin Pop Albums
Regional Mexican Albums
Tropical Albums
Latin Rhythmic Albums
Christian Albums
Gospel Albums
Jazz Albums
Contemporary Jazz Albums
Traditional Jazz Albums
Blues Albums
Classical Albums
Classical Crossover Albums
Classical Budget Albums
Classical Midline Albums
Top Holiday Albums	50	see Best-selling Christmas/Holiday albums in the United States
Kids Album	15
Compilation Albums
Cast Albums		Measuring sales of cast recordings.
New Age Albums
Reggae Albums
World Albums		Ranks the biggest selling albums of world music including catalog titles.
Soundtracks
Heatseekers Albums	50	Ranks albums from new artists/bands that have never attained the top 100 of Billboard 200. If an albums reaches the top 100, it and any of the artists'/bands' subsequent singles are ineligible for the chart.
Heatseekers/East North Central
Heatseekers/Mountain
Heatseekers/Northeast
Heatseekers/Pacific
Heatseekers/South Atlantic
Heatseekers/South Central
Heatseekers/West North Central
Tastemakers
Independent Albums	50	Rank top 50 albums released through an independent record label.
Canadian Albums	25
European Albums

[edit] Home videos

[edit] Top VHS Sales

[edit] Top Video Rentals

[edit] Top DVD Sales

[edit] Top Video Game Rentals

[edit] Top Music Video

[edit] Billboard Comprehensive Music Videos

[edit] Top Video Sales - Health & Fitness

[edit] Top Video Sales - Recreational Sports DVD

[edit] Further reading

Durkee, Rob. "American Top 40: The Countdown of the Century." Schriner Books, New York City, 1999.
Battistini, Pete, "American Top 40 with Casey Kasem The 1970s." Authorhouse.com, January 31, 2005. ISBN 1-4184-1070-5.

[edit] References

Parker, Martin (1991). "Making Sense with the Hit Parade". Popular Music 10 (2): 205-17.
Hakanen, Ernest (1998). "Counting Down to the Number One:Evolution of the Meaning of Popular Music Charts". Popular Music 17 (1): 98-111.
"About Us". Nielsen Business Media Inc. 2009. http://www.Billboard.biz.
"Billboard.com FAQ". Nielsen Business Media Inc. 2009. http://www.Billboard.com.